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San Diego, CA's Crocodiles have signed to Frenchkiss Records and will release their third full-length album, Endless Flowers, on June 5th, 2012.

While following in the footsteps of the raw, anthemic psychedelia of 2010′s Sleep Forever and the "repeat-ready… art-punk renaissance" (Rolling Stone) of their 2009 debut Summer of Hate, the songs on Endless Flowers add a refined cohesion and unmistakable sunnyness to Crocodiles' glorious, noise and echo-cloaked pop. The title track opener is four and a half minutes of soaring, alarm-ringing guitars, while "Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)" comes next with a resounding, punk-inflected charge. The 7-plus minute "My Surfing Lucifer" begins with two minutes of grimy, hissed spoken word before ascending to glammy, distorted heights; the bass-heavy and buzzing "Dark Alleys" is a motorik march; and the swirling "Bubblegum Trash" has a sweet, dirty charm. Nearly all are single-worthy, and are embellished with singer/guitarist Brandon Welchez's newly forward-mixed croon.

Crocodiles have evolved from their 2008 genesis as the core duo of Welchez and guitarist Charles Rowell into today's five-piece, which includes keyboardist Robin Eisenberg, bassist Marco Gonzalez, and drummer Anna Schulte. Last summer, the band headed to Berlin to rehearse and record Endless Flowers, which Welchez and Rowell had written last winter.

"Blood Tears", SISU's first full-length album (due September 2013), builds on the recently released "Light Eyes" EP (April 2013), offering a bigger sound and a heightened sense of drama. As Vu explains, "These are pop songs with un-pop sounds." SISU is defined by contrast and juxtaposition, and Vu finds a particular challenge and joy in combining opposites—soft and hard, loud and quiet, abrasive and smooth—to arrive at this aesthetic.

Writing songs for the album was catharsis for Vu, who used the process to overcome a period of disillusionment in between bands. "Blood Tears" is about relationships and the creative process—the necessity of pain for growth or creation," she says. "Sometimes you have to kill a part of yourself to become stronger." The new single "Harpoons" is a declaration of this power and independence found in divorcing yourself from the past. Both aggressive and sublime, it's quintessential SISU. From this experience, Vu found her voice, naming it SISU, the Finnish word for "extreme perseverance."

"Blood Tears" is the second release under the MONO PRISM umbrella—a collective of artists and springboard for music, film, and print projects. David South, SISU's touring bassist, heads MONO PRISM, directed SISU's first music video, "Two Thousand Hands," and creates the band's live visuals. It was these immersive audiovisual experiences that caught Cat Power's attention, which lead to SISU supporting her on numerous dates earlier this year.